Links & Resources

Herald Blogs

Twelve-year-old Kim is believed to be the youngest person to begin gender reassignment.

Biologically male and originally named Tim by her parents, Kim was diagnosed officially as a transsexual two years ago and has been undergoing hormone treatments.

In the UK, doctors generally avoid gender reassignment surgery until the patients are over 18.

However, following an extensive mental and physical examinations, German doctors have been given the go-ahead. The child’s parents have also expressed enthusiasm to begin immediately.

Kim’s father, identified as Lutz P, spoke candidly to German news magazine Stern and Der Spiegal about the non-issue of Kim living as a girl.

"We saw Kim as a girl, but not as a problem. Our life was surprisingly normal," he said. However, once the child encountered puberty, she showed signs of resistance and frustration.

"At that stage we realised that she was terrified of growing facial hair and her voice breaking."

While it is usual to begin treatments for someone so young, Kim’s doctors insist that in would be in her best interest to take steps toward surgery because growing up as a man could be psychologically damaging.

"Kim is a mentally well-developed child who appears happy and balanced," Dr Bern Meyenburg, specialising in transsexuality at Frankfurt University, included in his diagnosis.

"There is no doubt of the determined wish that was already detectable since early childhood.

It would have been very wrong to let Kim grow up to be a man. It is rare to have such a clear-cut case."

COLORADO SPRINGS (AP) — The former male prostitute whose accusations against New Life Church founder Ted Haggard, pictured, led to Haggard's dismissal as pastor has paid a visit to the megachurch.

Mike Jones, who has a forthcoming book, told The Denver Post that several people shook his hand during the visit Sunday and told him, "God bless you."

"I had read a lot about the church, but there's nothing like seeing it for yourself," Jones told the paper. "It wasn't to rub anyone's face in it by any means. I was wanting to get some perspective, to see where they are coming from, what the magnet is."

Haggard resigned last year as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after Jones alleged Haggard paid him over a three-year period for sex and sometimes took methamphetamine during the encounters.

Haggard then was fired as pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church. He publicly admitted in November to unspecified "sexual immorality."

In an apology to the church, Haggard had urged members to forgive and thank Jones for exposing deceit. Church members invited Jones to the church several times.

Jones visited on Sunday with members of a New York-based theater troupe, The Civilians, who are researching a project on evangelicals. Church leaders knew about the visit beforehand.

Associate pastor Rob Brendle saw Jones in the foyer.

"I told Mike, 'I don't want to impose my religious beliefs on you, but I believe God used you to correct us, and I appreciate that,"' Brendle said. "The church's response to him was overwhelmingly warm. One of the wonderful and enduring truths of Christianity is to love people the world sets up to be your enemies."

Haggard and his wife, Gayle, completed a counseling program in Arizona and are back in Colorado Springs, Brendle said.

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said Monday he would never allow a gay parade to take place in Moscow despite pressure from the West, Russia’s RIA-Novosti news agency reports.

“Last year, Moscow came under unprecedented pressure to sanction the gay parade, which can be described in no other way than as Satanic,” Luzhkov said at the 15th Christmas educational readings in the Kremlin Palace.

“We did not let the parade take place then, and we are not going to allow it in the future,” said Luzhkov who has been in office since 1992.

The conservative 70-year-old mayor of the Russian capital also banned Portuguese bullfights in Moscow in 2001 for their violence and did not let the St. Petersburg-based rock group Leningrad perform in the city because of their explicit lyrics.

It's hard to write about a friend who has just died, but people need to know about Anthony Castro, killed in a crash in the Southern California mountains on Jan. 21. He was 19.

Anthony was that rarest of people – an athlete out to his team. In Anthony's case, he was out in high school to his football and wrestling teams, our two most macho team sports. It took guts to take such a step but Anthony never thought too much about it – he was not ashamed of who he was and if you were uncomfortable, that was your problem.

My favorite Anthony story involves his senior year of wrestling. A fellow wrestler used to make snide homophobic remarks to Anthony.

Rather than file a complaint with the school, Anthony addressed the problem head on – he challenged the wrestler to a put-up-or-shut-up match. It didn't take very long, as Anthony had the guy pinned in about 20 seconds. That stopped the heckling and Anthony told me the guy quit the team.

Anthony was not a student in some L.A. Westside hotbed of tolerance. Rather, he lived in Banning, two hours east of L.A. in the desert and a rather "red" part of a very "blue" state. Being out in Banning, a pretty rough place, takes some big cojones.

CHEYENNE -- Wyoming would have the authority to void other states' gay marriages if a bill that narrowly passed a Senate committee Friday is approved by the entire Legislature.

Massachusetts is the only state that currently grants marriage licenses to same-sex couples; others permit civil unions, but the proposed law only pertains to gay marriages.

Wyoming already has a law in place that mandates marriages conducted in the state must be between a man and woman.

"The bill simply says we would not have to honor same-sex marriages in Wyoming that were authorized in some other state," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Gerald E. Geis, R-Worland. The bill passed the Judiciary Committee 3-2, with the committee's three Republicans voting in favor and the two Democrats opposed.

With advocates and opponents of same-sex marriage gearing up for another battle at the Connecticut state Capitol, Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Friday said that she would veto any legislation that allows gay and lesbian couples to marry.

The Republican governor signed the bill in 2005 that allowed same-sex couples to enter into legal civil unions. Connecticut was the first state to voluntarily pass such legislation without court pressure.

"I said ... when I signed the civil union bill that I believed it covered the concerns that had been raised. And I believe that that bill was the appropriate way to go and I still do," Rell told reporters at a state Capitol news conference. "And the answer is `yes,' I would veto a bill that provides for same-sex marriage."

The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association Friday called for the Food and Drug Administration to revise its blood donation policy regarding men who have sex with men.

Within the past year the American Red Cross and other organizations that collect donated blood, including the American Association of Blood Banks and America's Blood Centers, have encouraged the FDA to review a policy in effect since the early 1980s that prohibits men who have sex with men “regardless of sexual activity, safer-sex practices or HIV status” from donating blood. The groups say that the likelihood of receiving a unit of HIV-infected blood is one in two million and that blood banks use nucleic acid testing, which detects HIV and hepatitis earlier and much more accurately than older testing methods.

GLMA Executive Director Joel Ginsberg stated, “Two decades ago, when the agent that causes AIDS was unknown, these guidelines might have made sense based on the very limited data available at that time. Today, however, all donated units of blood are tested, not just for antibodies to HIV, but for the presence of the virus itself. These guidelines, which prohibit any man who has had sex with another man since 1977, have the effect of excluding all gay men from donating blood.”

Ginsberg continued that the epidemiology of the HIV epidemic has changed and that heterosexual women are now the fastest-growing demographic group to be diagnosed with HIV infection.

“Rational blood donation guidelines need to be founded upon the best evidence-based science and the behavior of individuals, not upon archaic data and preconceptions about groups of people. The FDA’s current guidelines imply that gay men are the primary agents for the spread of HIV, while giving heterosexuals a false sense of security about their sexual behavior and responsibility. These are two very dangerous messages for the FDA to be reinforcing,”

Charles Knipp and his racist show were shut down on Thursday, following a raging protest against the White gay comedian, who performs in blackface as a woman named “Shirley Q. Liquor.”

Knipp angered the Black community with his minstrel-style performance, which promoted the worst stereotypes of Black women – as being on welfare, living in the projects, illiterate, shoplifting sexually promiscuous mothers who don’t know who their children’s fathers are, alcoholics and drug addicts. As “Shirley,” Knipp also mocks Kwanzaa and in a skit titled “Who Is My Baby Daddy,” Knipp likens traditional African-American names to sexually transmitted diseases.

Knipp was scheduled to bring “Shirley” to the Factory Nightclub in L.A. during Black History Month, before civil rights groups such as Rainbow PUSH Coalition and SCLC of Greater Los Angeles cried out in opposition.

Activists are now applauding the nightclub for canceling the performance.

"I am glad that the Factory management has come to its senses and cancelled what was clearly a racist show," commented community activist and protest organizer Jasmyne Cannick. "While Shirley Q. Liquor may be popular in the South, this is Los Angeles and African-Americans here were not going to take this lying down. The misrepresentation of our community has gone on for far too long. It's acts like Knipp's that promote negative stereotypes of Blacks andm considering our recent issues with race relations, this is the last thing that we needed."

The protest was led by a coalition of community organizations including: The SCLC of Greater Los Angeles, L.A. Urban Policy Roundtable, Gentlemen's Gentlemen In the Meantime Men's Group, Youth Advocacy Organization, Out & About, South Bay Chapter Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center.

The West Hollywood City Council is due to pass a resolution strongly discouraging the booking of Charles Knipp at its next city council meeting on Feb. 5.

Writers and Photographers Will Provide Daily Updates From Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas, the Largest Gay and Lesbian Cruise in History

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Jan. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlantis Events, Inc., the world's largest company specializing in all-gay and lesbian cruises and resort vacations, is partnering with Cruise Critic, the leading online cruise community, to launch the world's first virtual gay cruise. Atlantis has chartered the world's largest passenger ship -- Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas -- for an all-gay Caribbean cruise departing Miami on January 28.

Writers and photographers will be onboard to document the daily events, activities, and ports -- and answer readers' questions -- as the 160,000 ton vessel tours the Caribbean over seven days with 3,700 gay and lesbian guests aboard from around the world. Their writings and photographs will be posted daily to the CruiseCritic.com website, one of the most popular online cruise communities with over 160,000 registered members.

"Our Freedom cruise sold out in record time, and we are excited to partner with Cruise Critic to provide a glimpse into this historic sailing for those people who weren't able to join us," said Rich Campbell, Atlantis CEO.

Atlantis is bringing more than 20 entertainers, including some of the world's top DJs, comedians, singers and performers to create a truly unique experience for its guests.

"The groundbreaking facilities on this spectacular ship, combined with Atlantis' signature entertainment, are sure to create an all-gay vacation like no other," said Campbell. "Creating the world's first virtual gay cruise seemed like a natural match for this trip, and Cruise Critic was the perfect partner."

"The Virtual Gay Cruise is a great way for those who have never traveled with us before to get a sense of our experience, and for everyone to share in on the excitement," Campbell continued.

In addition to the Freedom of the Seas sailing, Atlantis is offering seven other all-gay cruises in 2007, and three all-gay resort weeks, more than any other gay and lesbian tour operator. Destinations include the Mediterranean, South America, Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Baltic. In October 2006, Atlantis was voted best-in-category for all-gay tour operators, in Out Traveler's prestigious Readers' Choice Awards.*

* Out Traveler is a leading travel publication for the LGBT community, and is published by LPI Media, a subsidiary of PlanetOut Inc.

DETROIT – Straight kids aren't the only ones who get to go to camp anymore. Triangle Foundation, in cooperation with national supporting organizations National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; the National Youth Advocacy Coalition; Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays; and the National Center for Transgender Equality, has announced that the second annual Camping.OUT will be open to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and allied youth from across the United States.

"Camping.OUT was the one place where I didn't have to worry about what I said and if people were going to like me. For once I was accepted for who I was" said Robert Proffer, a participant at Camping.OUT 2006.

This year's camp, which will be held in Michigan from Aug. 14 – 19, will build upon the success of last years Camping.OUT, according to coordinator Greg Varnum.

"Our camp offers campers the opportunity to decide what programs they want to participate in each day," said Varnum. "They may decide to go swimming or canoeing in the morning, for example, and then have a group conversation about leadership facilitated by a nationally-known GLBT activist in the afternoon. The young people who attended last year's camp loved the format—but most importantly they loved the freedom to be open and out—to play, to think out loud together, to relax and be themselves. We're looking forward to offering the Camping.OUT experience to even more youth from around the country this year."

The camp will be open to youth aged 13 - 17 and will provide a welcoming, accepting place for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied youth to have fun, make friends and expand their leadership and activism skills. The camp is running an Early Bird Registration special of $475 through March 1 – but no young person will be turned away for lack of funds, said Varnum.

"Triangle is currently raising funds for Camping.OUT to make sure that any young person who wants to come, can," Varnum said.

For more information on Camping.OUT, or to make a donation to allow a young GLBT or allied youth to come to the camp, visit www.campingout.org or contact Greg Varnum at greg@tri.org or (313) 537-3323, ext. 108.